Smoke Shop Shuttered After Pot Bust

By Thomas Breen, New Haven Independent

NEW HAVEN, CT — The Chapel Smoke Shop closed Tuesday morning after local, state, and federal agents raided the Green-adjacent retailer — and came up with 36 pounds of illegal cannabis products.

That raid took place at around 10:30 a.m. at 908 Chapel St., a smoke shop located in one of the groundfloor retail spaces of the former Chapel Square Mall building.

Lt. David Guliuzza, the city police department’s district manager for downtown, said that the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) initiated a search warrant for the smoke shop and requested New Haven Police Department (NHPD) assistance.

He said that DEA agents, city police officers, and inspectors from the city’s Health Department, the city’s Building Department, and the state’s Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) all participated in the raid.

“There will be a significant amount of illegal drugs coming out of here,” Guliuzza said as he assessed what the various agents had found Tuesday. “This is going to be a big hit.”

He later texted the Independent that agents found 31.63 pounds of edibles, 3.53 pounds of concentrates/vapes, and 0.96 pounds of cannabis flower. Guliuzza said there was one on-scene arrest, of the store clerk who was present at the scene, “with the potential for an arrest by warrant” later.

At around 11 a.m., Health Department Sanitarian Geovanny Rivera taped a sign to the shop’s front door and windows.

“This establishment is officially CLOSED to the sale of tobacco and smoking products” by the city’s health director, those signs read.

An employee at the smoke shop declined to comment for this story. “No conversation,” he told this reporter.

State business records show that a company called Chapel Convenience LLC is registered to the address 908 Chapel St. That holding company is controlled by Aqib Al-Amin and Anell Chowdhury.

While Connecticut has legalized adult-use cannabis, only state-permitted dispensaries are allowed to sell such products. Chapel Smoke Shop does not have a license to legally sell cannabis. It does have an active state license to sell vaping products and electronic nicotine delivery systems.

Click here, here, and here to read about city police raids of other smoke shops across the city that yielded illegal cannabis products.

Several passersby on Tuesday stopped to marvel at the police raid and take pictures on their phones before moving on.

Josh Vernon just shook his head. He said he routinely stops by the shop to say hello to the employees, who he described as nice people. He said he’s been smoking marijuana since he was 12 years old, that he’s now 53, and that he doesn’t plan on stopping smoking anytime soon. He also said he’s never bought cannabis at this particular shop.

Vernon, a North Carolina native, said that with the Chapel Smoke Shop closed for the morning, he was going to walk over to a grocery store instead and pick up some cereal. What kind? He’s going to keep it simple, he replied, and getting some Fruity Pebbles.

The New Haven Independent is a not-for-profit public-interest daily news site founded in 2005.